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@brendaja wrote:

fireberd,

Which Vista should I upgrade to then? Should I wait for a later edition of Vista?

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hi brendaja

I would upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit version





From Chris

My computer
Dell Dimension 1100
Microsoft Windows XP Home SP 2
512 MB for Ram
Intel Celeron CPU 2.53GHz
Linksys wireless-G WUSB54GS With SpeedBooster
Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.3

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@brendaja wrote:

Greetings!

I have 2GB of ram. I want to install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition because I think this would efficiently use all of my machines capabilities. I also want to know if I could install it without destroying or modifying the Dell System Restore sections of the drive.

Thanks!

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Yes, you can do it without destroying the Dell partition. I have on my Precision 690 Windows XP x64 and works perfect. I will not return to 32 bit on this machine and I am NOT going to use any kind of Vista as well.

Before you start installing, be sure you get all the drivers you need from Dell site. If you have a SATA drive, you must have x64 SATA drivers on a floppy when you boot the install CD for XP x64.

Beware that many programs might not work if they require drivers. For example, Adobe Acrobat PDF printer version 7.x and below cannot be installed on XP x64. Adobe Acrobat 8 works. There are several other programs as this one.

I would suggest to make a list with the programs you use now and search on Google if they work on x64. Also 2GB RAM is not that much for x64 and doesn't make much sense to use x64 with less than 4GB RAM.

Brendaja >> A new software doesn't mean it works on x64. For example, Zone Alarm does NOT work on x64.

My HDD is partitioned as follow:

1. Dell partition (~70 MB)
2. Windows XP partition (I had here XP from Dell, now I have XP x64), the rest of HDD.

When I installed XP x64, I reformatted the partition where XP from Dell was, before installing XP x64.

Regarding drivers, be sure you have the following drivers BEFORE you start installation of XP x64. All such drivers MUST be 64 bit:

- motherboard and/or chipset (you get these from Dell).
- SATA if your hdd is SATA, otherwise you cannot install XP. This driver you MUST have on a floppy. If you don't have a floppy drive, you must buy one or borrow from a friend
- video card (you can get it from Dell)
- sound card (if it's onboard, you get it from Dell, otherwise from the manufacturer. I have a Creative X-Fi and got the drivers from Creative
- network card (you can get it from Dell if you have onboard network)

If you have any other hardware (like web cam etc) be sure you find drivers for x64, otherwise that device(s) will not work on x64.

When you Google for your apps, enter x64 as well in your search criteria. There are several sites related to x64 systems (planetamd64 is a good one)